Frozen out, Democrats objected to the lack of a new tax on the booming natural gas industry and charged the plan will do little to reverse budget-balancing cuts in aid to schools and safety-net programs that Republicans engineered under Corbett. They also complained about the distribution of new public school money that delivers higher percentage increases to suburban, rather than urban, schools.

Philadelphia Sen. Vincent Hughes, the ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, called it a “flim-flam sham” budget built on shaky assumptions and the backs of the working poor.

“If you have, you get more,” Hughes said. “But if you don’t have, you get less.”

Significant portions of the Republicans’ budget plan remained a mystery because a large companion bill, which outlines some of the budget plan’s biggest financial maneuvers, had not been unveiled.

The big task for Republicans was to address a massive and unexpected collapse in tax collections that tore a gaping $1.7 billion hole into the $29.4 billion budget plan Corbett proposed in February.

Democrats proposed making up the shortfall by expanding Medicaid under the 2010 federal health care law, delaying planned tax cuts for businesses and increasing taxes on natural gas extraction and sales of tobacco products.

While Senate Republicans entertained the idea of a tax increase, House Republicans blocked it. So instead, Republicans developed a no-new-taxes plan that cuts business taxes and fills the gap by assembling more than $2 billion in one-time items, including postponing Medicaid payments, raiding off-budget programs and draining reserves.

That is the highest dollar figure for such stopgaps in any year, not counting the $6.9 billion in federal recession bailout dollars that came to Pennsylvania from 2009 to 2011, Democrats say.

Republicans are also projecting a rosy 3.5 percent increase in revenue collection next year. The current fiscal year’s tax collections lagged the previous year’s by nearly a full percentage point through 11 months.

Under the Republicans’ budget plan, spending would increase $723 million, or 2.5 percent, over the current year’s approved budget. Another $220 million would be added to the books of the nearly-ended fiscal year, rather than the new fiscal year, making the entire package a $943 million increase, or about 3.3 percent.

Elsewhere in the Capitol, lobbyists patrolled the Capitol’s corridors while Corbett and House Republican leaders continued to work to win enough votes for public pension legislation backed by the governor.

At one point, the sound of a demonstration by public school advocates from Philadelphia and Pittsburgh boomed through the building. As police looked on, they crowded the tiled hallway between the offices of House Speaker Sam Smith and House Majority Leader Mike Turzai, and chanted “Whose house? Our house!” and “Hey hey! Ho ho! This budget’s got to go!”